Spirit Led Living

Tis the season for thanksgiving and reflection.   My wife and I have done quite a bit of that lately. This time of year is always difficult for me because I am always overwhelmed with work and because of the losses I have suffered over the years. Both my Father and Mother passed during this time and now my good friend Dick Phillips has been added to that list. All of this serves to make us stop and take inventory of our lives. I am particularly blessed to have a job, which although stressful at this time of year, gives me great satisfaction.   This past Thanksgiving, Metropolitan Ministries helped over 11,000 families. In Brandon alone we had 50 people turn their lives over to God and we actually baptized 5 of them on the spot. We have touched the lives of countless volunteers and donors in addition to the families we have served directly. In fact, sometimes the volunteers get more out of it than the clients. I am blessed with a wonderful extended family of four children and o...

Our friend Dick Phillips has gone on to be with the Lord. While we rejoice in the Lord that He is in heaven, our hearts grieve his loss. Dick was a big gruff man with a bushy moustache that often made his face look like he was frowning in disapproval.   However, the glint in his eyes gave away who he really was. Like many of us from the baby-boomer generation he grew up with a disconnect between what he was experiencing in church and the vibrant Christianity he   found in the pages of the New Testament. Also like many of us, when he came across the teachings of John Wimber he found someone who was giving expression to what we believed. Wimber said what we were thinking, only he said it better. Dick bought into it hook, line and sinker and those teachings of the here and the not yet of the kingdom, doin' the stuff and everyone gets to play. As a result he trained thousands of people on how to pray for the sick, how to usher in the presence of the Holy Spirit (Come Holy Spirit) ...

Micah 6:8 “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” There are passages in the Bible that amaze me by their simplicity and at the same time by their depth. The first time that this passage jumped out at me it was being sung at a service at Calvary Chapel in Rochester, NY. It was sung in a call and response format and I was enthralled by its’ beauty. Growing up I was confronted with lists of do’s and don’ts. People’s hearts were in the right place but I think at times it is easier to follow rules than to hear the heart of God and walk it out. This passage shares God’s heart for His people. He starts out by telling us that He has told us what He wants. He has not kept it hidden from us or shrouded it in mystery.   As it has been said by many others before me, the Jews were so focused on the letter of the law that they could not understand the spirit of the law. In our vernacular, t...

Let's start out by beating the enemy to the punch. I have sinned. My sins are numerous and they are grievous.   Through my sin and arrogance I ended a marriage of 30 years. In doing so I abandoned my oldest children. That they were already adults did not matter, they were still living with us at the time.   Add to that the fact that they were adopted and my leaving only added to their abandonment issues. To make matters worse I was a pastor at the time and my sin caused the church to implode. Countless lives were affected and many feel that pain to this day. Many turned their back on me and I don't blame them. I didn't like myself much either. I entered an ever worsening spiral of depression and my decisions at the time were less than rational. Never the less, they were my decisions and they affected many lives in a negative way. For that I am truly sorry and I ask for their forgiveness. I have already asked for and received it from God. But this is not a pity party. You ...

Ps 46:11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Friday I had one of those days. I took a tumble getting out of my car at work. I keep a golf umbrella tucked next to the driver’s seat in case of rain. I don’t know how it happened but it did. As I was getting out of the car my right foot got caught on the umbrella. My body twisted and I fell forward unto a very rough patch in the parking lot. I fell on all fours and my face hit the pavement. I skinned my hands, elbows and knees. The worst of it was the fact that my leg got twisted and when my foot finally released my leg shot forward and my right knee took the brunt of the fall. I was stunned. I immediately felt the pain. It took me a minute to get myself off the ground. I felt very foolish. I haven’t taken a tumble like that since I was a kid and here I am a grown man just shy of his 59 birthday falling on his face. I went inside the building where a couple of my co-workers helped clean me up and bandage me. I t...

As I was rounding out our last session for our Life Steps class we ended up in 1 Corinthians 13 the chapter on love. It got me to thinking about my relationship with God. All too often in evangelical circles when we talk about love we address it in the realm of the mind and the will. We tend to divorce it from the realm of emotions. I understand this and there is validity to the notion that emotions ebb and flow and just because we don’t “feel” God’s love it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. Valid point. On the other hand, I am a hot-blooded Puerto Rican. I feel deeply. To ask me to divorce my feelings of love from my will and mind is like asking an Italian to talk with their hands tied behind their backs, or more to the point, for a Puerto Rican to eat a meal without a piece of bread in one hand. Just not happening. So, what does the Bible say about our love relationship with God? Deut 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Al...